


Overseer

by Fierceawakening



Category: Transformers Generation One
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-12
Updated: 2012-07-12
Packaged: 2017-11-09 20:47:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/458213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fierceawakening/pseuds/Fierceawakening
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Minific for the prompt "Megatron/Shockwave - patience." The rumor among most of the Decepticons is that Megatron left Shockwave on Cybertron to get him out of the way. The truth is very different.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Overseer

They speculated endlessly about why Megatron had left Shockwave behind.

All of them figured he deemed Shockwave a liability. They hid their rumor-spreading well, but Megatron would never have held on to leadership for thousands of vorns if he didn't have spies that were both loyal and clever.

Some subscribed to elaborately detailed conspiracy theories. Supposedly, Shockwave's relentlessly logical processor had reasoned that Megatron made a poorer leader than Shockwave himself would. Passion for conquest fueled Megatron; reason and calculation would drive their new leader. Once he had deposed Megatron, Shockwave would rule without petty emotion to distract him.

Most believed more prosaic little stories. The most ridiculous of these was that Shockwave had such poor aim he was more likely to hit a fellow Decepticon than one of their Autobot enemies. He'd left Shockwave on Cybertron to spare his army Shockwave's uselessness - and, so the story went, his friendly fire.

In the end, all of the rumors were about the same thing: that being left in charge of Cybertron wasn't some great honor. Megatron had appointed Shockwave guardian of Cybertron not because he trusted him to safeguard an entire planet, but simply because it kept Shockwave away from the others.

It was all nonsense, of course. He'd left Shockwave in charge for a far better reason. The conspiracy theorists were right about one thing: Shockwave was logical. Their planet had been ravaged by war for an entire generation; chaos reigned. Shockwave, his reasoning as dispassionate as it was unbending, was the perfect one to slip in and replace that discord with the order that Megatron wanted.

Quietly. Calmly. Efficiently.

There were, of course, Autobot holdouts, rebels who raided the fuel stores that the Decepticons had carefully stockpiled. And a few enemy outposts still dotted the planet, many in or near the remains of the greatest Autobot cities. Cybertron was not yet fully under Decepticon control. It wouldn't be until Megatron and the others returned to scour it clean of all resistance.

But many who had resisted Decepticon control had given in out of exhaustion, starvation, or internal strife within the rebellion's small cells. Without Megatron there to battle or to rage against, it was more difficult to keep the flame of defiance ignited.

Endless war bred a deep need for structured lives, even if that structure came from their most hated enemies. And Shockwave was the perfect administrator to provide it. He was loyal to his cause, but he was not animated by emotions like rage or hatred. The peace they earned through surrender was neither merciful nor pleasant... but it did restore the calm in their lives. Megatron had long ago predicted that some would make that trade, and by now Shockwave's reign was all many could remember.

That was unexpected. The Decepticons who had left were only supposed to have been away on a brief mission to find and harvest energy. But their long absence had only given Shockwave more time to patiently secure ever tighter control.

Megatron smiled. The others could think he'd tossed aside someone who wasn't worthy of him. It hardly mattered. Cybertron had long since learned the truth. As for Shockwave himself...

...only those who could not see beyond the obvious needed obvious rewards.


End file.
